


traitorous heart

by jadzeanna



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Episode: s01e01 Midnight on the Firing Line, F/F, Pining, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22828960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadzeanna/pseuds/jadzeanna
Summary: "What you said is true," Talia continued, "but that's not why you're avoiding me."
Relationships: Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	traitorous heart

**Author's Note:**

> They took the show off Amazon Prime when I was only halfway through the first season, so I know there's context that I'm missing, but this interaction gave me a _lot_ of feelings.

Susan Ivanova explained, then, about her mother, about how seeing Talia the telepath reminded her of the torture her family went through. The situation was oppressive and cruel, and she truly meant every word she said.

"You're lying," Talia said anyway.

"What?"

"What you said is true," she continued, "but that's not why you're avoiding me."

Had Talia glimpsed the truth of why Susan was avoiding her, the fact that she'd seen the woman's stockinged legs and buttoned coat and felt choked with longing, brutal and coarse?

Perhaps she had. It was strong emotions that were hardest for telepaths to block, after all, and Susan had been blindsided by the strength of what she felt when Talia cornered her in the elevator.

She had been so close, and her lips were so red, like a ripe strawberry that she could just slip into her mouth and—

What had driven that woman to chase her down, to not let her live with her own uncomfortable truth but instead force her to confront it?

"It's true enough," Susan told her instead. "I hate what you represent, and I ought to hate you as well."

She didn't hate her.

Terror, intrigue, they were one and the same. Surely Talia could sense the heat radiating off her skin, could feel Susan's traitorous thoughts. Surely that's what inspired the _look_ she gave as she sipped her drink and shook her head.

Talia was a pawn of the organization whose machinations had imprisoned, tortured, killed Susan's mother. It was the least mercy she could do to leave Susan alone with her monsters. Yes, she'd been deprived of a family by Psi Corps, forced to control her powers; Talia was no less a victim. She was a reminder for those who were born unlucky, denied freedom. But she was also there, delightfully alive.

Surely Susan would think about this moment later. She fully expected to wonder, what if Talia had understood what Susan really thought? What if she decided to confront her on it? Sometimes the result was a fantasy, sometimes a nightmare. But in the end, she trusted her more than she thought she could.

Sometimes the aching Susan felt in her heart was so strong it must have been impossible to hide. Sometimes she still caught deniable glances across a crowded room, the upturned corner of that strawberry-red mouth, a playful sparkle in those mascaraed eyes. But Talia never said a word.


End file.
